


What’s Myposian for ‘I love you’?

by QueenofSchmoop



Category: Perfect Strangers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cousin Incest, Dance of Joy, First Time, Kissing, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Nebulous Timeline, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 09:49:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14329824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenofSchmoop/pseuds/QueenofSchmoop
Summary: After doing the Dance of Joy one day, Larry asks Balki a question. This leads to a change in their relationship.





	What’s Myposian for ‘I love you’?

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that neither are involved with Mary Anne or Jennifer very seriously at this point.

Larry Appleton looked down at his cousin Balki and smiled. They had just finished the Dance of Joy, in their apartment. He was held up in those strong arms and Balki was beaming. He felt a pulse of something wash through him, looking into that sweet face. As he slipped down, feet regaining the floor, he felt as if his world had just tilted on its axis. 

“This will be so wonderful, Cousin Larry!” Balki all but shouted in his delight.

Larry abruptly turned around. “Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Call me that.”

“Call you what?”

“Cousin Larry.”

Balki looked confused. “I don’t get it,” he finally admitted. “Is a joke?”

“No. My name is Larry. Balki, maybe it was cute at first but you’ve been here a while and you still call me ‘Cousin Larry’.”

“Of course I do! You are my Cousin Larry, Cousin Larry. What else should I call you?”

“What’s wrong with just Larry?”

“Just Larry? You want me to call you just Larry?”

“Larry. You can call me that, can’t you?”

Balki was starting to look upset. “Why? Don’t you like it when I call you Cousin Larry?”

“It’s not that I don’t like it, Balki…”

“Then why?”

“I’m not really your cousin, am I? I mean, we’re so distantly related we aren’t real cousins.”

Balki’s eyes got watery. “Not cousins?” He whispered. 

Larry felt bad but he pushed on. “Technically, I suppose we’re—“

“You do not want to be cousins, Cousin Larry?”

He couldn’t stop it as it burst out of him. “No.”

Now Balki’s face crumpled. “I see.” He moved slowly off. “Okey Dokey. I stop calling you that. Larry Appleton,” he added, pronouncing it the usual way so it sounded like “Appleh-ton”. 

“Balki,” Larry started to move toward him, “I’m not saying we have to stop being friends. And you can just call me Larry.”

“Sure, sure,” Balki said, not looking at him. “I have to go to sleep now.”

“It’s 7:00 PM.”

“I am tired.” 

“Balki—“ He took a step toward him, reaching out for the other. 

Balki jerked his arm away. “Good night, Larry Appleton.”

This was ridiculous. “Balki, I just wanted you to stop calling me that.”

“No, you want us not to be cousins anymore,” Balki pointed out. 

Larry shrugged, embarrassed. “I have my reasons.”

Balki nodded. “I’m sure you do, Cou—“ He cut himself off. 

“Hey, c’mon. This doesn’t have to change anything between us. Balki, you’re still my best friend.”

Turning suddenly angry eyes around, Balki’s voice got low. “Best friend? But not cousin!”

“No.”

Balki made a noise of disgust and turned back away. 

“Balki!” Larry reached for him again, only to watch Balki move away. “It’s better this way.”

“It is? How? When I feel as if my heart were ripped out by a Myposian sheep hook.”

Larry paused for a moment. “What?” He asked after a long moment.

“You do not wish to be cousins anymore and it hurts!” Balki yelled at him. 

“I can’t be cousins with you!”

“Because you hate me?!” Balki shouted back. 

“No, because I love you!” Larry stopped and slapped his hands over his mouth. 

Balki’s eyes went wide and he stepped back one step. “I do not understand.” He finally admitted. 

“Nothing. It’s nothing. Call me whatever you please. I’m going to bed.” Larry made to push past Balki but a hand caught him and he stopped. 

“Love me?”

Larry took a breath and figured in for a penny, in for a pound. “I don’t want you to call me cousin because I have feelings for you. When you call me that, it reminds me how wrong those feelings are.”

Balki was so still it was unnerving. “You like me?”

“Yes,” Larry confessed, not meeting his eyes. 

“Like me, like me?”

“Yes.”

“Like me, like--?”

“Balki! I love you. I think I may even be in love with you. I want to kiss you. How much clearer can I be!”

“You want to kiss me?”

Larry shook his head. “Forget I said anything.” He started to shake free again but Balki held him fast. 

“I still do not understand.”

“Balki, it’s bad enough we’re both men. That sort of thing has become more acceptable in recent years. But for family to be,” he paused, searching for the right word, “involved,” he finally settled on. “It’s not right.”

“But we are, as you said, very distant cousins.”

“But still related. Have you never heard the word incest before, Balki?”

“Of course I have, don’t be ridiculous. But what do bugs have to do with this?”

“Incest,” he stressed the word, “not insects, Balki. It means a relationship of a, well, intimate nature between two people who are blood related. And it’s taboo. That means forbidden,” he rushed on to clarify. 

“Oh, that! I know that. That is why I call you Cousin Larry.”

“What?”

Balki moved close. “To remind me you are my cousin. And to not grab you and push my lips to yours.”

Larry could not have been more stunned if he’d been told he had just been elected President of Mypos. “What?” He asked again. 

“Cousin Larry, did you think you were the only one falling in love?” Balki smiled softly. “I have been in love with you for some time.”

“What?”

“I call you Cousin Larry to remind me that you are my cousin and do not look at me that way. But to hear that you feel this way about me? It fills my heart with gladness.”

Larry didn’t summon another ‘what’ to his lips. He just stared. 

“Of course such things are forbidden, as you say. But we are so far removed I do not think it would be a problem.”

“You like me?” Larry finally found his voice. 

Balki smiled. “I love you,” he corrected. 

“As a cousin?” He needed clarification. 

“I suppose. But also as you. Larry Appleton. All of you. From this frizzy hair down to your sensible shoes.” 

Larry found himself suddenly in Balki’s arms, their bodies pressing together. 

“You said you wanted to kiss me. I want to kiss you too.”

Larry blinked. “Okay.”

“I know you. So you do not regret this, you must start.”

He paused for a long moment. Long enough to make Balki’s face change. Then he leaned forward and brushed his lips very softly against those under his. He pulled back, half waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

Balki smiled, guileless and happy, then he moved and kissed Larry. A powerful, passionate kiss that overwhelmed them both. When they pulled away from each other, gasping, Balki shook his head. “Hokey smokes, I did not know you could kiss like that!”

Larry blushed a little. “I didn’t know you could kiss like that either.” They stood there, arms around each other, uncertain. “What now?” He asked. 

“Now? Now we love each other, my Larry.”

Larry started. Then laughed as Balki suddenly pulled back. 

“We must do the Dance of Joy, for having found our love together!” 

Shaking his head in fond exasperation, Larry stepped up to do the Dance again. When it was done, when he was back in Balki’s arms, he bent his head. The pair’s lips met in a sweet kiss that felt a lot like a joyful beginning. 

 

End

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know if I should change/add to tags


End file.
